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Red Eye Rundown
If The Killing Fields doesn't tear at your heart strings, you have no soul.
Why not try Schindler's List, Hotel Rwanda, The Bridge on the River Kwai
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Reviewed by Jo Pettitt In terms of war cinema, there are very few films that I believe can genuinely compete with the power of The Killing Fields. Winner of a raft of awards including 8 BAFTA's and 3 Oscars, it simultaneously charts with a staggering degree of honesty and precision a number of desperate struggles against overwhelming odds; that of Dith Pran, of Sydney Schanberg back in cosy New York, and in a wider sense that of the Cambodian population. It is successful in so many ways that to fit it all into one review seems a task of Biblical proportions.
The cast of The Killing Fields is nothing short of inspiring. Sam Waterston is brilliant as Schanberg - frightened, confident, emotional and believable all at the same time. John Malkovich and Julian Sands are equally good in supporting roles, with the former especially heightening the whole sense of the occasion after the American withdrawal is announced. However, the star of the show is without question Dr Ngor. When I saw the film for the first time, I was immediately struck with the honesty and humility with which he portrays Dith Pran. I was unaware that Dr Ngor was a Cambodian national who spent 4 years enduring torture and starvation at the hands of the Khmer Rouge after the 1975 revolution. He was forced to conceal his medical training to avoid being killed, even when his wife and child died in the camp during a difficult premature labour. Eventually, Ngor escaped to a refugee camp over the border in Thailand, from which he emigrated to the US. The reason his performance is so chilling is because he only had to play himself, to relive experiences that most of us couldn't possibly dream of. Credit must also be given to director Roland Joffe who so superbly captures the chaos of the period. One of my favourite scenes is when Schanberg, Al Rockoff (Malkovich) and Jon Swain (Sands) discover that Pran's fake passport will not secure his safe passage and they go about attempting to forge one they have acquired. Amidst all the madness of the world around them, Joffe manages to brilliantly capture this microcosmic battle of a few individuals without dismissing of down-playing the importance of outside events. The film's musical score, produced by composer Mike Oldfield, is another enormous success. The scenes that follow Pran's failed attempt to rescue a young boy from capture (he is killed by Khmer Rouge infantry) almost brought me to tears, with the soundtrack playing a vital role in supporting the onscreen images that you take in as the viewer. If I was forced at gunpoint to criticise this film (and you'd need to do that to get as peep out of me) I would have to say that the importance of Schanberg's role is slightly overplayed. This is undoubtedly a result of Western influence on the storyline and plot. Also, what the production team was thinking when they decided to use John Lennon's (highly hypocrticial) anti-war anthem "Imagine" during the closing credits is beyond me.. "No possessions, no religion etc" is a little tongue in cheek considering the main aims of Pol Pot's Communist Manifesto. It is also a shame that there was no attempt to impart any facts upon the viewer during either the opening or closing credits - Pol Pot's reign of terror is often overlooked in Western society, as it ties in with the period immediately after the end of the Vietnam War, the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan and Argentina's invasion of the Falklands. There were approximately 1.7m "undesirable" Cambodians killed during the civil war and not enough is known about how in the full face of international oversight this was ever possible. Regardless of that, The Killing Fields remains in my opinion a superb example of how immensely powerful cinema can be when it is done well. I challenge anybody with a shred of human character to watch the scenes were Pran is forced to hide amongst hundreds of corpses without feeling visibly uncomfortable, and that is before you are aware of Dr Ngor's real-life experiences. There are so few movies around that fill you with such a deep sense of dread and then bombard you with sorrow like The Killing Fields does, and for that reason it wins our Red Eye Review Classic award. Please, see this film, NOW. People
Directed by: Roland Joffe
Written by: Bruce Robinson Starring: Sam Waterston, Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich, Julian Sands, Craig T. Nelson, Spalding Gray, Bill Paterson, Athol Fugard, Graham Kennedy, Katherine Krapum Chey, Oliver Pierpaoli, Edward Entero Chey, Tom Bird, Monirak Sisowath, Lambool Dtangpaibool, Ira Wheeler, David Henry, Patrick Malahide, Nell Campbell, Joan Harris, Joanna Merlin, Jay Barney, Mark Long, Sayo Inaba, Mow Leng, Chinsaure Sar, Hout Ming Tran, Thach Suon, Neevy Pal, Charles Bodycomb Genre Information Production Information Produced in: UK
Language: English / French / Khmer Release Information Released: 1984
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